In Memory
'Jurassic Park' author, 'ER' creator Crichton dies
Oh, Michael Crichton, how I did love thee.
I wanted to say that I first read Jurassic Park when I was eleven years old, but as the film was released a little over a month before I turned ten, it must have been at that age or even nine(!). I remember my mother had read it and remarked to her boss that it would make an awesome movie, to which he replied that it was being made into one as they spoke. I got interested, so I read it in turn--especially since my parents had decided that they wouldn't let my sister and I see the film in the theater. I mostly skipped over the tech-y and scientific stuff that I didn't understand (i.e. most of it), but I still thought it was a hella fun read. My parents bought the movie when it was released on VHS and yes, I hid behind a pillow in terror on my first watch, but every time after that has been a veritable laugh fest. Jurassic Park is one of my all-time favorite movies.
My parents also bought The Lost World: Jurassic Park when it was first published. I still maintain to this day that Crichton wrote it so Spielberg could make a movie out of it, and some of the similarities to the first novel made me facepalm (Malcolm fucks up his leg and spends the remainder of the novel high on meds), but I still enjoyed it on its own merits. And the film gave me more Jeff Goldblum. (I had such a crush on him.)
Shortly after reading Jurassic Park I permanently borrowed my parents' old paperback of Congo. It's still in my re-reading rotation of books, though it's been some years now since my last readthrough. I will always be amused by it because when I first read it, I didn't understand what the phrase "bought the farm" meant; a couple reads later and I had learned it and was going "OH! THAT'S what he meant!" and slapping myself upside the forehead. But the film version was ghastly. I was extremely disappointed by it.
I still refuse to read Sphere, on the basis that my mother was once listening to it on audiotape and I happened to hear the part with the little jellyfish and it scared the everliving hell out of me. But I have some funny memories related to seeing the film in the theater. :)
Twister, which I'm not sure I knew Crichton wrote until recently, gives me much joy--yes, judge me on that if you like--because of its supporting cast. Namely, Alan Ruck and a pre-stardom Philip Seymour Hoffman. And Bill Paxton always plays Bill Paxton yet I CAN'T HELP LIKING HIM ANYWAY.
Timeline also remains one of my all-time favorite novels. I think I stole my parents' copy of that, too. At any rate I read it quite a lot my junior year of high school. I'm a bit jealous of how Andre Marek got the opportunity to go back to a time in history he loved so much and actually stay. (I've been sort of basing my Titanic novel on that concept)(OHSHI--SPOILER) The movie kinda sucked but yay Gerard Butler and David Thewlis, and also it is responsible for our running "trebuchet!" joke.
I keep telling Eric to read State of Fear, because I thought it had a lot of interesting things to say (or rather, refute) about global warming.
I haven't followed ER religiously from the beginning, unlike Eric who apparently did right up until he left home for college. But I've watched it since Leland Orser joined the cast and it has brought me quite a bit of fannish glee. Not to mention agony. It is also indirectly responsible for getting me back into roleplaying in general, and LJ roleplay in particular. Despite the suck John Stamos has brought to it here lately, I'll still miss it when this season is over.
In short--this is my tribute post to you, Michael Crichton, a writer who I loved and whose absence from the bookstore I will feel very keenly. My thoughts are with his family and those who loved him in person.
Oh, Michael Crichton, how I did love thee.
I wanted to say that I first read Jurassic Park when I was eleven years old, but as the film was released a little over a month before I turned ten, it must have been at that age or even nine(!). I remember my mother had read it and remarked to her boss that it would make an awesome movie, to which he replied that it was being made into one as they spoke. I got interested, so I read it in turn--especially since my parents had decided that they wouldn't let my sister and I see the film in the theater. I mostly skipped over the tech-y and scientific stuff that I didn't understand (i.e. most of it), but I still thought it was a hella fun read. My parents bought the movie when it was released on VHS and yes, I hid behind a pillow in terror on my first watch, but every time after that has been a veritable laugh fest. Jurassic Park is one of my all-time favorite movies.
My parents also bought The Lost World: Jurassic Park when it was first published. I still maintain to this day that Crichton wrote it so Spielberg could make a movie out of it, and some of the similarities to the first novel made me facepalm (Malcolm fucks up his leg and spends the remainder of the novel high on meds), but I still enjoyed it on its own merits. And the film gave me more Jeff Goldblum. (I had such a crush on him.)
Shortly after reading Jurassic Park I permanently borrowed my parents' old paperback of Congo. It's still in my re-reading rotation of books, though it's been some years now since my last readthrough. I will always be amused by it because when I first read it, I didn't understand what the phrase "bought the farm" meant; a couple reads later and I had learned it and was going "OH! THAT'S what he meant!" and slapping myself upside the forehead. But the film version was ghastly. I was extremely disappointed by it.
I still refuse to read Sphere, on the basis that my mother was once listening to it on audiotape and I happened to hear the part with the little jellyfish and it scared the everliving hell out of me. But I have some funny memories related to seeing the film in the theater. :)
Twister, which I'm not sure I knew Crichton wrote until recently, gives me much joy--yes, judge me on that if you like--because of its supporting cast. Namely, Alan Ruck and a pre-stardom Philip Seymour Hoffman. And Bill Paxton always plays Bill Paxton yet I CAN'T HELP LIKING HIM ANYWAY.
Timeline also remains one of my all-time favorite novels. I think I stole my parents' copy of that, too. At any rate I read it quite a lot my junior year of high school. I'm a bit jealous of how Andre Marek got the opportunity to go back to a time in history he loved so much and actually stay. (I've been sort of basing my Titanic novel on that concept)(OHSHI--SPOILER) The movie kinda sucked but yay Gerard Butler and David Thewlis, and also it is responsible for our running "trebuchet!" joke.
I keep telling Eric to read State of Fear, because I thought it had a lot of interesting things to say (or rather, refute) about global warming.
I haven't followed ER religiously from the beginning, unlike Eric who apparently did right up until he left home for college. But I've watched it since Leland Orser joined the cast and it has brought me quite a bit of fannish glee. Not to mention agony. It is also indirectly responsible for getting me back into roleplaying in general, and LJ roleplay in particular. Despite the suck John Stamos has brought to it here lately, I'll still miss it when this season is over.
In short--this is my tribute post to you, Michael Crichton, a writer who I loved and whose absence from the bookstore I will feel very keenly. My thoughts are with his family and those who loved him in person.